I'm not entirely sure that this belongs in this forum, however it seems to me that this is the most appropriate one so... here goes. I work in a rehabilitation facility that allows patient smoking. The patients go outside to a designated smoking area every two hours under staff supervision. It is not solely nursing's responsibility, safety, social work, dietary, activities and nursing all have designated time slots in which they are supposed to take out the patients. The problems begin when one of the disciplines doesnt show up to take their turn. The patient's addictions become my problem, because, number one, the nurses station that i run is closest to the smoking area, and number two, the patients have brain damage and many believe that it is their "right" to smoke. We have a new chief nursing officer who asked me what was the biggest waster of my time and i described this conondrum (sp?) to her. She agreed that this is a collosal pain in my ass and made the suggestion that i try to do a little research, find out how other facilities who allow patient smoking have successfully managed this little issue. I don't think that my hospital will be going non-smoking anytime soon, so i thought it might be worth a shot! Anyone working at a place that has successfully navigated their way through this annoying situation, please let me know how you did it?!!!! Thanks in advance.
Sincerely, Stop Making Your Addiction My @#$*ing Problem!!!
